Article ~~ Clean Team USA?

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Clean Team USA?

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SAN DIEGO – Federal officials on Monday refused to discuss how many athletes might be on a list of hundreds of thousands of people who received performance-enhancing drugs during the largest steroids bust in U.S. history. But after a news conference during which officials outlined the results of Operation Raw Deal, a sports official offered a hint about athletes who likely won't be on the list.

Those wearing red, white and blue.

U.S. Olympic athletes could emerge unscathed from the scandal, according to Travis Tygart, who oversees the drug-testing program for the Olympic team. Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and an adviser during the 20-month international investigation that culminated in four days of raids last week, said the evidence he has seen suggests the list of people who received performance-enhancing drugs does not include athletes expected to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

"We're pleasantly surprised, very surprised at this point," Tygart said.

The findings might foretell equally good news for Major League Baseball and the NFL. Even though the leagues have taken action against players who have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and acknowledge it's a problem, they could join U.S. Olympic athletes among the unscathed.

People who buy steroids and other drugs online often use fake names and otherwise mask their identity. Professional athletes seeking drugs might be especially reluctant to use their real names and home addresses. And highly paid athletes also might be more apt to go through a physician for a prescription than resort to the Internet for purchases.

But for now, Major League Baseball and the NFL can only wait and worry while the list remains largely secret. Tygart apparently is the lone sports official privy to contents of the list – a database of the names of people who received steroids, HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs during the investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration – and officials offered no indication if or when they might share the information with other sports officials or make the information public.

But for at least a moment Monday, speculation gave way to debate about the significance of the list.

Clearly relieved that the U.S. Olympic team apparently will avoid embarrassment, Tygart declared it "a day of vindication for the clean athletes who compete ethically."

But others said it was time for a reality check, and that elite athletes – especially those good enough to make the U.S. team that will compete in Beijing – are smart enough to procure drugs without leaving a paper trail that could be discovered during a sting such as Operation Raw Deal.

On Monday, federal officials said a high volume of steroids seized were bought on the Internet rather than the so-called wellness clinics in Florida where major-league baseball players and other athletes have bought steroids and human growth hormone, or from the likes of Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) at the center of the scandal that implicated Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and several other U.S. Olympic athletes.

"If you are an athlete or a coach and you are going to dope, and you know you're in a stringent testing program, you are going to try to do it in ways that you're not going to get caught," Tygart said. "And the easiest way not to get caught is to go through some unknown source sitting behind your computer at home and doing it essentially at your own house. That's the easiest way to get away with it, if you think you can get away with it."

But Conte found the notion of elite athletes buying steroids on the Internet as laughable. Instead of going high-tech, Conte said, wizened athletes now eschew high-tech, and traceable, avenues.

"Instead of ordering on the Internet, it's the friend of a friend of a friend buying it out of the trunks of cars in the dark alleys behind gyms," Conte said during a phone interview. "They're just reverting back to using the old-fashioned techniques."

Of athletes who get caught buying drugs online, Conte said, "These guys are stupid for giving their names, addresses and credit card numbers to an online pharmacy when all they have to do is have a friend of a friend of a friend walk into a gym and buy it for them."

Charles Yesalis, a retired professor at Penn State and steroids expert, believes that instead of dark alleys, elite athletes head into well-lit doctors' offices. He cited James Shortt, a physician who lost his medical license after authorities discovered he had prescribed performance-enhancing drugs to members of the Carolina Panthers team that reached the Super Bowl four seasons ago. The only difference between Shortt and other physicians who prescribe steroids for professional athletes, Yesalis said, is that Shortt was one of the few to get caught.

"They don't do what a buddy of mine a year ago called cowboy chemistry," he said. "They have people like me plan it all out for them. Elite athletes have access to physicians who will prescribe this for them. As long as the doctor doesn't go large scale with it, it will stay under the radar.

"Keep in mind, prescriptions are written daily around the United States for testosterone and human growth hormone for purposes that no one would question."

On another topic, Tygart and Conte share common ground. Tygart said the BALCO scandal, in which 14 Olympic athletes were suspended, has instilled a fear that has curbed the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Conte said he agrees that doping in sports has declined thanks to government involvement that broke open the scandal involving BALCO in 2003, Signature Pharmacy earlier this year and more than 50 labs across the United States shut down during Operation Raw Deal.

The government's ability to wiretap phones, intercept emails and execute search warrants has proved far more effective than testing when it comes to curbing the use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to Conte.

"It is less of a problem today than it was? The answer is yes," Conte said. "Are they making progress? The answer is yes. But to suggest that it's all cleared up now is nothing more than propaganda."


Josh Peter is a writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Josh a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

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